When I was a Freshman in High School a friend and I bought two chickens. Our intentions were to raise them as pets and to eat their eggs. Shortly after my friend and I got our first hens I went out and got another one. My first hen was a Barred Rock - she was really friendly and a good looking bird, she even won a championship trophy at fair. I really fell in love with the breed and got another one - Egypt. Egypt had a flopped over comb which isn't "breed standard" and she was on the smaller side.

I remember when I first brought her home as a chick I was holding her and when I set her on the ground she would follow me around. I handled her a lot [my friend and I had a lot of time on our hands] and she was super friendly.

A couple of years passed and we acquired a duck [and several other chickens], the duck scalped poor Egypt to the point that her little flopped over comb was just kind of hanging. I remember being at the clinic around 10pm at night with my dad. She wouldn't hold still for me to try and numb her comb, I ended up having to cut it off. I packed the crap out of the wound with quik-stop. It actually ended up turning into a scab and completely healed a few weeks later. She was SOOOOO good considering. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do - I felt awful for her! I was also really proud of my dad because he's kind of a wimp

Shortly after the comb incident my dog LiLo grabbed her [but thankfully didn't kill her!]. I took her to work, we knocked her out, the vet placed a drain over her back and I kept her at the clinic for 2 weeks to medicate her and keep her clean. She was so good for everything. She was always really friendly and easy to handle. She let me flush her wound 3x a day and took her baytril like a champ. She was so easy to handle and very inquisitive. She was always easy to catch.

A few days ago I had a feeling she might pass away. She was 8yrs old this year, a few days ago I noticed she had had some diarrhea. It's not entirely uncommon for chickens to get loose poop once in a while but this looked really weird. I guess last night when my dad put the chickens to bed she was laying on the ground instead of on her roost but he didn't think much of it.

This morning I went to let the girls out [Kiwi and Egypt] and found Egypt on the floor of the coop. It was really disheartening. She was such a good little hen. She was also laying eggs ever since summer arrived this year. Without fail every other day there would be a big brown egg in the coop!

I know it's kind of weird but chickens can be really personable if you handle them a lot. Back then I had a lot of time to dink around and my friend and I would walk the neighborhood with the chickens on our shoulders, we would even sometimes ride our bikes with them on the handle bars. My friends hen Syndey LOVED it. They aren't the most intelligent creatures ever, but they can be a lot of fun. It just sucks having to say goodbye.

plebayo wrote:. Back then I had a lot of time to dink around and my friend and I would walk the neighborhood with the chickens on our shoulders, we would even sometimes ride our bikes with them on the handle bars.

I'm sorry Suzanne, and RIP Egypt... knowing you had a life 1000 times better (and longer) than any laying hen in a commercial coop, you were loved, handled, and treated like a pet rather than just a food producing animal.

call2arms wrote:I'm sorry Suzanne, and RIP Egypt... knowing you had a life 1000 times better (and longer) than any laying hen in a commercial coop, you were loved, handled, and treated like a pet rather than just a food producing animal.

This is very true, she did live a very full and happy life.

Thanks everyone for the kind words. She will be greatly missed, I totally was listening for her "voice" last night when I was going to close Kiwi in for the night. I'm going to bring her home Tuesday and my dad is going to help me find a spot to bury her in the yard.